The use of computer networks has grown dramatically in recent years, far exceeding the expectations and predictions of most computer industry experts. One of the largest and fastest growing computer networks is commonly known as the "Internet", a world-wide "network of networks" made up of many thousands of interconnected computers and computer networks. (The name Internet derives from the shortening of "internetwork").
The term "internet" actually has two usages. Without capitalization, it generally refers to any interconnected set of networks (e.g., local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), etc.). When capitalized, however, (i.e., "Internet") it generally refers to "the" Internet described above.
Today's Internet is a global resource connecting millions of users that began as an experiment over 20 years ago by the U.S. Department of Defense. Although the networks that make up the Internet are based on a standard set of protocols (a mutually agreed upon method of communication between parties), the Internet also has gateways to networks and services that are based on other protocols.
One of the most common features of the Internet is the exchange of electronic mail (E-mail). Many Internet users print E-mail addresses on their business cards along with their telephone and fax numbers. Any Internet user or any subscriber to most major online services (e.g., Compuserve, America Online, etc.) can exchange E-mail with any other connected user as long as he knows the other user's Internet E-mail address. E-mail messages, however, are limited to textual data only, and may be subject to size restrictions.
Another major feature of the Internet involves a data exchange facility commonly referred to as "FTP" (for "File Transfer Protocol," the transfer protocol which governs data exchange) by which users can exchange binary data with any Internet site which supports FTP (FTP site). FTP users can download or upload binary files of any size over the Internet, and can browse through file directories on remote FTP sites. Other Internet FTP-related facilities provide the ability to search for information by content, title, topic, etc. FTP sites and files are identifiable by a special Internet address specifier which identifies the FTP protocol, Internet site and/or file name and location.
In the last few years, an Internet hypertext facility commonly known as the "World Wide Web", or "WWW", has become increasingly popular. The WWW facility includes inter-linked hypertext documents, known as "web pages". These documents utilize a hypertext language called "HTML" (Hyper Text Meta (or Markup) Language) and are processed on the Internet according to a Hypertext Transfer Protocol ("HTTP"). Any web page can link (i.e, reference or "point to") any other web page anywhere on the Internet. As a result, web pages are spread out all over the Internet. Web pages generally provide a "point and click" style of user interface which requires very little user training. As with FTP data resources (files), web pages are identifiable by a special Internet address (known as a Universal Resource Locator, or URL) which identifies the hypertext protocol (e.g., HTTP) for web pages and the Internet site on which the web page is located. Many WWW sites have a default "home page" or web page which is automatically accessed whenever the site is referenced.
Addresses of resources on the Internet are specified by the URLs which are long character strings composed of a protocol name and an address (or URN--Universal Resource Name), which includes the path to the requested resource. The accepted format is a string of the form "protocol-name://hostname/path". Occasionally, the protocol may be inferred from operations already being performed. For example, if one is browsing directories on an Internet site for the purpose of downloading, the "ftp://" file transfer protocol is generally assumed. In such cases, many browser programs permit the specification of a resource (e.g., file) by the URN only. Similarly, if one is browsing WWW pages, it may reasonably be assumed that the "http://" hypertext transfer protocol is in use and should be the default protocol unless otherwise specified. Internet E-mail addresses are "strings" having the general format: "user-name@hostname".
Given the electronic nature of the Internet, these URL character strings are usually referenced in electronic documents or in printed matter by reproducing the entire string. To access a resource, a user will either electronically copy its associated string (if the URL string is available electronically) to an application (e.g., software program) capable of accessing it, or will manually type it into such an application (if the URL string is printed in a hard copy document).
Evidently, the minimum knowledge necessary to contact another party via E-mail or to send or receive information via the Internet is an Internet address; either an E-mail address or a URL/URN specifying an FTP or WWW resource. Unfortunately, these addresses can be very long and difficult to remember.
By way of example, a particular web page might be identified by the Internet URL:
"http://www.hostcomp.com/pub/indexes/userinfo/homepage.html".
In this example, "http://" identifies the hypertext protocol (the two forward slashes `//` are a special delimiter used to separate the protocol name from the rest of the URL), "www" refers to the "world wide web", "hostcomp.com" refers to a host computer at a commercial site, "/pub/indexes/userinfo/" identifies a specific directory on the host computer's storage database, and "homepage.html" is a file specifier for a hypertext web page written in HTML. When this URL is given to WWW processing software (i.e., a "Web Browser"), the hypertext web page is retrieved over the internet and executed for display to the user. It is beyond the scope of this specification to go into the details of Internet, WWW and FTP protocols and information transfer mechanisms. However, those of ordinary skill in the art already understand and appreciate the underlying principles and mechanisms.
Many Internet sites provide services and information to Internet users via WWW, FTP, E-mail, and other mechanisms. Many television and radio news departments, movie studios, research laboratories, universities, manufacturers, vendors and a variety of others have publicly-accessible WWW or FTP sites. It is not uncommon to see or hear a news broadcast refer to an Internet URL by which more information on a story can be obtained. Numerous manufacturers provide technical support and documentation via the Internet, and print their WWW or FTP addresses in their advertisements and literature.
For the end user, however, the explosion of Internet URLs and E-mail addresses can be somewhat overwhelming. These addresses must be remembered or carried around on a piece of paper, then manually typed into a computer (or other Internet access terminal). This process is cumbersome, error-prone, and can be frustrating for the user.